The other side of the coin
by Lanny-Sama
Summary: An unlucky, unknown Autobot finds himself strapped to a berth in a torture chamber. Starscream is to be his company for the rest of his drastically shortened life.


******This was a spur of the moment story. I am not sure how happy I am with it, but since it has both Starscream and Knock Out, I guess I can be happy with a simple tribute to them. **

**The other side of the coin**

Clashmetal stumbled forward in between two Decepticon vehicons. His hands were twisted behind his back and locked with stasis cuffs. He tried to take deep breaths as the Decepticons brought him further and further into the Lion's nest.

His comm was broken- had been for a long time too- and the Autobots didn't know of his arrival on earth. There was no rescue coming, and Decepticons had a specific way of dealing with prisoners.

The vehicons led him through a door into a dark room with a spotlight in the middle. Chains, a scratched up berth, and a stained floor- unmistakably a torture chamber. Clashmetal could feel his kneejoints going weak but he kept his mouth tightly shut. The anticipation- that was what made torture bad, not the pain. He knew that was the way it worked, but it did not help. Images of torture came quick to his mind, and a half hidden table with ominous instruments had his tanks roiling in fear.

The vehicons pushed him onto his stomach on the berth and started dragging the restraints over his neck and legs, finally freeing his arms before strapping them to the table as well. He couldn't move an inch. At the complete mercy of whoever was to be the Decepticon torturer, and a perfect view of the tilted table decked out with gleaming tools.

The vehicons left, and he was left alone to ponder in great detail what would be done to him. He stared at the tools, and hummed a small song for himself. The less he thought about pain, the less it would hurt. The less he thought, the less it would hurt. Pain? There was no pain. Not yet. Not yet- but any moment. Any moment...

The doors swished open and he jolted on the berth, limbs struggling uselessly under the restraints. A Decepticon strode up to the berth, out of his sight, and a scratchy voice laughed lowly.

"Look what the vehicons dragged in today. A cute, lost little Autobot." Clashmetal recognised the voice immediately, and clenched his denta together. A pair of sleek and sharp seeker servos lightly landed on his back and he pressed himself to the berth, as far away from the claws as possible. "Shy hm?... You won't be for long." Starscream finally moved into his vision, and he caught the gaze of the seeker's deep red optics. They glowed even in the spotlight light that shone down so harshly on the torture berth. Clashmetal's dermal plating tingled where the seeker had touched him, and he watched as Starscream selected a tool from the neatly arranged table.

His breathing hitched- his processor was already bringing forth possible scenarios with the thin drill that Starscream took out of his vision. The seeker was behind him again- and the seeker's clawed servos rested carefully and gently on his back. Slowly, the Decepticon started to stroke along his plating, and Clashmetal held his breath waiting for the pain to set in. Thin fingertips smoothed over the ridges in his armour, and a clawed thumb grazed the sensor nodes lying just in between his backplates. His breath ran out, and he sucked in a panicked gulp of air. Starscream chuckled.

"So excited you are. Have patience, we're only getting started." The hands roamed over his back, feathery touches turning into caresses, turning into a firm touch. The servos on his back pushed sensor nodes that hadn't been stimulated for vorns, and his abused plating was carefully massaged. A servo came to rest on his helm, and he flinched at the sudden touch. It caressed his head, and a finger lightly scratched the rim of his audioreceptor. His frame was on fire.

The Decepticon hummed. "Three thousand five hundred and seventy two...Let's start with … fifty... shall we?" The claws continued their caresses, and Clashmetal's fear of pain was the only thing keeping the growing waves of pleasure at bay. No matter where the seeker touched, it felt like all the other places he had grazed over were lit up as well. Like a blanket of pleasure slowly rolling out over his back, growing bigger with every touch.

It was surreal, the amount of sensation his mere back-plating was reporting to his processors. The nodes were far more sensitive than they had any right to be, and growing in intensity more and more and more and-

A cool piece of metal suddenly inched over the fuel lines in Clashmetal's neck and he yelped. The cool touch had him shuddering, the cool metal on his neck spreading to a cold breeze running over his back. The servo on his helm stroked him softly, and the tool was inched deeper in between his neck-lining. He felt sharp edges graze past the lines and wires, and his breath caught in his vents as he felt the same touch echo over the rest of his back. His energon went cold in his veins-

He screamed when the drill turned on, his pleasure turning to agony in a klik. Warm and comfortable nodes suddenly howled with agony, and relaxed plating almost dislocated with how sudden it contracted. Clashmetal twitched and thrashed in his restraints as the carefully caressed and stroked sensors suddenly screamed with agony. The drill was pulled out, and the servo on his helm softly ran over the side of his faceplate. His scream stopped, and the torture chamber was silent save for the clawed hands softly running up and down Clashmetal's neck.

"Lost little Autobot... Where is your base?" The seeker was standing in his field of vision when Clashmetal onlined his optics, and the seeker's servos were stroking carefully over the sensor nodes under his jaw-line. He couldn't remember when he had offlined his optics.

"I... I won't tell...Nne...never..." More of an automated response than anything- he hadn't thought about... hadn't even heard Starscream, not really- ….Starscream hushed him with a servo to the lips, but his eyes glinted with annoyed impatience. Starscream stood, and the seeker's thumbs slipped over Clashmetal's faceplate, and the clawed fingers curling around his head. Slow circling motions set loose the tension in his face, the plating heating up.

"Well then... let's continue. How about one hundred and five..." The seeker murmured in his scratchy voice, and his servos slipped from Clashmetal's helm to his shoulders. Ridge after ridge was explored, thumbs and fingers finding every little hidden sensor beneath the armoured plating. Clashmetal was shaking under the seeker's touches, the shock of the earlier pain not yet gone from his system. All the abused sensor nodes were extra responsive to the soft treatment, seeking reassurance in the soft deceptive touches. Clashmetal twisted in his restraints desperately.

"H-hhow...hh" His voicebox shorted out, and Starscream only continued his touches. Clashmetal's frame trembled as the seeker's servos brushed over the previously assaulted nodes on his back. They still burnt with ghost pain, but they flared to life at the lightest touch of Starscream's fingers. The pain slowly returned to pleasure with every node he touched, and Clashmetal arched against the berth, a pathetic gasp escaping him. His servos clenched at thin air, and he offlined his optics, sweet caresses rolling over him like waves-

The seeker's fingertip punctured a line and his world exploded in pain, the warm waves turning to ripping claws that were surging all througout his body. He screamed- and he begged. Wet foam was forming at the corners of his mouth.

"N-NAaaaGGh! No! N-nn! St-s- STOP!" The finger digging into his sensor node pulled back, and his frame was left twitching on the berth. He could feel lubricant dripping from his mouthplate and his systems reported a transfluid leak.

"Where is your base!" The scratchy voice had lost any previous playfulness, and was only harsh and scratchy. Clashmetal cried. It was a question he could not answer. The claws dug right back in, and he screamed as another flash of pain had his frame seizing. "Bah! Useless pit forsaken-" Starscream's touch disappeared, and the door to the torture room opened and closed.

His air vents were taking in and expelling air at a frightening rate and his fans were whirring at their highest. He couldn't hear anyone else inside the room. He was alone.

It took him a while to calm down, and for the throbbing in his frame to disappear. His neck was leaking energon, and there was a stabbing ache in his lower back, but besides the two laughable scratches his frame was healthy. Almost in new-shape. His gaze was still fixed on the largely unused tools, and a panic-stricken laugh worked its way out of his voicebox.

He had a sudden realisation, and it had his spark cringing in his chest. Three thousand five hundred and seventy two. Starscream's mentioned number. Thee thousand five hundred and seventy two sensor nodes on the outside of a mech's body. Clashmetal still felt the aching burn all over his back, neck and shoulders, as if his plating was slowly melting and seeping into his frame. Those were just one hundred and five of the sensors his body had.

"I don't know... anything... I don't know..." The tools on the table only stared back at him while they waited for Starscream. Clashmetal knew it would not spare him.

* * *

"I heard that Starscream is a masseur."

Knock Out turned and stared at Breakdown. Starscream? Really? That was one rumour he couldn't even humour. "Now, Breakdown, where'd you get that idea? Starscream a masseur- you have seen his servos right? Those things are ninety percent claw, ten percent pure hatred! You can't massage with hatred."

Breakdown shrugged. "A vehicon told me."

Knock Out sighed exasperatedly, and dropped a few tools into a box. Gossiping vehicons... ugh. "Starscream does the torture around here. I really doubt the mech knows anything about working locked up joints or stressed dermal plating! Now please, carry this box for me. We need to clean up our Autobot guest before he decides to die on us."

The mech had been brought in only a few orns ago, and it hadn't taken long before he'd started screaming. Starscream had stalked by the medbay in a bad mood, so there was no intel to be had from the prisoner just yet. The Autobot still had to live.

The barely audible sobbing from the torture chamber promised a messy job, but all Knock Out and Breakdown found was a crying Autobot with a shallow scratch on his lower back and a drill wound in his neck. The tools on the table were nearly all clean, and there were only a few drops of energon to talk about.

Starscream entered a few moments later, and sent them an annoyed look. He checked a few of the torture tools and asked in an icy tone; "And what, dear doctor, are you doing here?..."

"I was just... here to check on our prisoner. He was kind of screaming like a sparkling- I thought I had to do some patching up." The mech on the table was softly begging, his frame weakly wriggling in the restraints. Starscream hushed him, and ran his clawed servos over the mech's back. The Autobot shuddered. It was hard to tell if it was from fear or not.  
"No need for that Knock Out. I know how to do my job. Unlike _some_ mechs around here!" He hissed the last few words and the autobot on the table flinched. "Now please- Get lost! I'll call you if I... We have need of your assistance." Starscream smiled at the Autobot prisoner, and mockingly caressed the mech's faceplate.

Both Breakdown and Knock Out quickly left the torture chamber. Knock Out shot a look back at the door as the silent pleading of the Autobot continued, going into static as Starscream continued his torture. Knock Out shot a look at Breakdown.

"...Was that Autobot a complete pussy, or did Starscream just become... scary?" Breakdown didn't answer and simply followed Knock Out back to the medbay. The screaming started a few breems later.


End file.
